Documenting The Light Project

by Rachel G. Craft|Oct 10, 2008

Wrapping up my previous post’s theme of installation—the online catalogue for the Pulitzer’s outdoor exhibition, The Light Project, allowed me to humor my love of the installation process on a whole new level.

Some background:In conjunction with our exhibition indoors, Dan Flavin: Constructed Light, The Light Project includes four outdoor light-based works installed in the neighborhood surrounding the Pulitzer. We collaborated with three local arts organizations: the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and White Flag Projects, which each curated a work in the project.

A major component of this project was a commitment to interaction with our neighborhood, Grand Center (you’ll be hearing more about this area in my StL-themed posts next week). Each work of art was installed outdoors and within walking distance to encourage exploration in this normally quiet (and at times, pretty desolate) area.

Not just interaction, but also the transformation of these neighborhood locations, meant that we wanted to showcase this development online and give visitors a platform to provide feedback. The month prior to the opening, the installation of each artwork could be tracked on mini-blogs within our web catalogue. Users could watch each work of art come to life and leave comments to let us know what they thought of the process. In addition, each work of art is very different (with very different installation challenges), making their development all the more interesting to watch.

Jason Peters’ work Untitledwas installed in a lot across the street from the Pulitzer building. Read about the installation of his work here.

Spencer Finch’s work Sunset (St. Louis, July 31, 2008)consists of a solar powered ice cream machine which dispenses free soft-serve ice cream in the color of the St. Louis sunset. It was installed in front of the Contemporary Art Museum. Read about the process behind his work here.

CHORUS, by Rainer Kehres and Sebastian Hungerer, was installed in a previously burned out church around the corner from the Pulitzer – the church had been an empty shell since it caught fire in 2001. Read the history and follow along with the process (and about the lamps collected from members of the community).

So ends my Pulitzer-focused posts for this week. Next week: I have some great topics lined up. Information transparency on museum websites: how is it being used and where’s this idea heading in the future? And a round-up of the arts scene in St. Louis—more diverse than you might think.

Rachel Craft is a writer and editor based in San Francisco, CA. A contributor since 2009, she previously edited "Flash Points," an ART21 Blog series that explored the relevance of current issues to thinking about contemporary art.